In one of his most famous quotes, Ralph Waldo Emerson said “Imitation is suicide;” and that lesson certainly still holds true to social media in the 21st century.
Early this spring, the New York Times published an article about ‘Facebook alternative’ – or more scandalously, ‘Facebook killer’ – Diaspora, an up and coming social networking site. In a world dominated by Facebook, what can Diaspora offer that Facebook can’t? The answer: Greater privacy, as in greater control over who has access to your personal information, hassle-free account deletion, and the ability (or lack thereof) to download photos.
But is this pitch great enough to overtake and topple web-giant Facebook? One factor that Diaspora neglects to take into consideration is that to defeat Facebook, it must offer something novel, clever, and original, and not copy and regurgitate what Facebook has build its success on. Remember Myspace? Everyone was on (and was addicted to) MySpace until Facebook came along and developed photo tagging, relationship statuses, and status updates. Who’s copying whom now?
The sheer fact that Diaspora is copying Facebook to “try” to defeat it in its own terms is a formula for failure. Facebook has nothing to worry about. And if there’s a site out there that wants to surpass Facebook, it’s going to have to inspire more than “just another Facebook wannabe” from its users.
Thank you, Emerson, for that lesson in history.
Written By: Jaszver Bauzon